Principal Engineer

HappyFox Inc.; Chennai District; On-site; INR 3,500,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

HappyFox Inc. in Chennai, India, seeks an experienced Principal Engineer to lead the technical direction of its engineering organization.

This role blends strategy with hands-on delivery, designing scalable, enterprise-grade products and implementing practices that enable rapid, reliable releases. You will partner with the CTO and engineering leadership to shape the vision, set technical standards, and mentor teams while driving security, multi-tenant architecture, and cloud-native solutions

Qualifications

• 15+ years of professional software development experience.
• Experience leading technical strategy at an organizational level, with hands-on design of secure, scalable multi-tenant systems.
• Track record of end-to-end architectural decisions balancing value, performance, reliability and cost.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership: set standards, guide architecture, and build scalable systems.
• Translate business needs into technology solutions; stay hands-on with architecture and code.
• Accelerate development cycles by creating reusable components and tooling to reduce friction.
• Own code quality and security; enforce best practices and conduct audits.
• Embed security practices across the SDLC and ensure system integrity.
• Collaborate with product, sales, and operations to align technical decisions with business goals.
• Mentor engineers and promote technical excellence across the org.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and lead proof-of-concept initiatives.

Skills

Technical leadership

Architectural design

Multi-tenant SaaS

Security best practices

Cloud platforms

Python

Go

Ruby

Mentoring engineers

Stakeholder alignment

Performance optimization

Tools

Django

Gin

Rails

PostgreSQL

MongoDB

Job description

We’re looking for an experienced Principal Engineer to lead and shape the technical direction of our engineering organization at HappyFox. This role combines strategic and hands‑on responsibilities, from designing and developing scalable, enterprise‑grade products to implementing practices that enable rapid, consistent releases.

What You Are Responsible For

As a Principal Engineer, your primary responsibility is to accelerate high‑quality product delivery, driving business objectives and optimizing engineering team productivity. You’ll work closely with CTO and collaborate with engineering leadership to shape the technical vision and roadmap while fostering a collaborative environment that empowers developers to continuously improve engineering standards and practices.

In this role, you will:

• Provide Technical Leadership: Set technical standards, guide architecture, and shape engineering practices in alignment with company goals. You will tackle complex projects with a hands‑on approach, building high‑quality, well‑architected & scalable systems that align with business objectives. With a broad perspective, you’ll ensure all systems are high‑performing, scalable, secure and cohesive to support business growth.
• As a pragmatic visionary, you’ll translate business needs into effective technology solutions, leveraging your deep expertise. You’ll stay hands‑on, delivering both in-depth technical work and high‑level architectural designs.
• Accelerate Development Cycles: Lead initiatives to streamline feature development and improve team efficiency by creating tools, workflows, and reusable components that reduce friction and eliminate bottlenecks. This will enable faster development, easier troubleshooting, and consistent delivery of high‑quality products that meet business goals.
• Own Code Quality and Security: Take ownership of the codebase, focusing on enhancing readability, maintainability, and security. Establish and enforce best practices, conduct audits, and implement structural improvements to elevate code standards.
• Embed Robust Security Practices: Lead initiatives to integrate security at every stage of the software development lifecycle, proactively addressing potential vulnerabilities and setting standards to ensure ongoing system integrity.
• Collaboration: Collaborate with product, sales, and operations teams to align technical decisions with broader business objectives. Facilitate effective communication and decision‑making to ensure technical efforts support growth, performance, and the end‑user experience.
• Mentor and Lead Engineering Excellence: Support and develop engineering talent, fostering a culture of technical growth and continuous improvement. Provide mentorship, share insights, and promote standards of excellence across the team.
• Leverage Emerging Technologies: Continuously evaluate and experiment with new tools, platforms, and techniques to drive productivity and quality. Lead proof‑of‑concept projects to assess and integrate beneficial technologies.

Who You Are

We’re looking for someone who has:

• 15+ years of professional software development experience focused on building scalable, enterprise‑grade SaaS applications.
• Proven expertise in leading technical strategy and vision at an organizational level, along with hands‑on experience in designing secure, scalable multi‑tenant systems that effectively manage data isolation and tenant‑specific configurations, serving thousands of concurrent users. Experience supporting real‑time or low‑latency applications while ensuring compliance with privacy and residency standards such as GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA.
• A track record of driving complex architectural decisions end‑to‑end that balance long‑term vision with short‑term needs, particularly in SaaS environments with global reach or multi‑product ecosystems, managing trade‑offs between business value, performance, reliability, and cost.
• Strong collaborative skills with the ability to build consensus across diverse stakeholders and foster alignment on technical initiatives while gathering and integrating feedback effectively.
• Advanced proficiency in Python, Go, or Ruby, with experience in web frameworks such as Django, Gin, or Rails.
• Hands‑on experience with databases like PostgreSQL or MongoDB and a deep understanding of their scalability, performance, and reliability trade‑offs.
• Expertise with cloud platforms like AWS, GCP, or Azure, with a solid understanding of cloud‑native architecture.
• A strong pragmatic approach to technical decisions that focus on delivering business value and managing trade‑offs effectively.
• Demonstrated experience in mentoring senior engineers and providing constructive feedback to foster technical excellence across the organization.